World News | Boris Johnson Says Against Any Attempt to Hold Talks, Normalize Relations with Russia

Kyiv [Ukraine], August 25 (ANI): Outgoing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday during his visit to Kyiv that he opposes any attempt to hold talks and normalize relations with Russia over its ongoing military operation in Ukraine.

"We must fight any creeping attempt to normalize relations with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin... We also know that this is not the time to advance some flimsy plan for negotiation with someone who is simply not interested. You can't negotiate with a bear while it's eating your leg, and you can't negotiate with a street robber who has pinned you to the floor," Johnson told a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, reported Sputnik.

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The negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow would be impossible even if Putin offered them, Johnson said.

"There is no negotiation, there is no offer. Vladimir Putin is not even offering a negotiation. And even if he were, it's hard to see how you could, how the people of Ukraine could negotiate under current circumstances," Johnson added.

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On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian forces. In response, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow.

Turkey has emerged as the lead mediator between Russia and Ukraine, hosting several rounds of negotiations since Russia launched the operation, according to Sputnik.

Talks hit a roadblock after Zelenskyy said Russian troops must give up the territories under their control.

In July, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that the Ukrainian negotiation delegation did not maintain any contacts with Russia after inking the grain deal in Istanbul and that if the Russian-Ukrainian talks take place, the conditions for them would be completely different.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a video message on Wednesday morning said, "People are fighting with steel, with the courage to defend their homes and their families, and to preserve their right to decide their own destiny in their own country.""However long it takes, the United Kingdom will stand with Ukraine and provide every possible military, economic and humanitarian support."

Generally, there are celebrations on independence day, but this year in view of the ongoing war, gatherings have been banned in the capital Kyiv, where air raid sirens sounded in the morning, and Zelenskyy urged citizens to be on guard against "Russian terror."

The war has entered its seventh month and there is no end in sight. Many world leaders on the occasion of Ukraine's independence day gave their message to the people of Ukraine. (ANI)

(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)